Some of the members of the K9 Spy ring: Nicholas, Kate, Matt, Chris and myself, Stephen.

Members of the K9 Spy Ring in front of The International Spy Museum.

     When we entered The Spy Museum we scouted the place out and sat down at the Spy City Cafe and had lunch. After lunch we walked through the line to enter the tour. There, hanging from ropes from the ceiling, was a statue of the man who started the Russian KGB.   It looked just as it did when it was being taken down by the Russian people after the fall of the Soviet Union.  At the beginning of our mission we had three minutes to memorize a fake identity. My name was Billy Henderson; I was 14 years old and was a student. I was from the USA, born in Isabella, Spain, but on my way to London, England for a nine-day vacation.

     After memorizing our identity we moved on into the Briefing Room, where they told us a little bit about being a spy. After our briefing we moved onto the Training Room. There they taught us: How to pick a lock, figure out a mild computer password, some disguise techniques, how to smuggle people across the border of a country in a car, and many other things. One of the attractions there was a spy car. Like the one James Bond had in the movie, Goldfinger. It was an Aston Martin DB5 equipped with machine guns, tire slashers, a bulletproof shield, oil jets, a dashboard radar screen, and an ejector sear. The car inspired many Intelligence Agency’s to incorporate similar items into vehicles used in dangerous situations. It is believed that the Presidential Limousine features Gun ports, Tear gas cannons, and Layers of Kevlar and other bulletproof materials beneath it’s sheet metal.

     Leaving the Training Room we were required to enter all of the information we had memorized previously. If you passed the security check you were given your mission that you were supposed to enter at the end of the museum. Then we moved through the history of spying. From the Revolutionary war to spies of today we covered most of the history of spying. Did you know that during the period of the Cold War the nations involved had more active spies than any other war and then, many of them were let go; that Nathan Hale was the first spy killed in the line of duty and coined the phrase, “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country or that Russia now has many more spies than it did during the Cold War? The International Spy Museum was a great museum that was fun for all ages from me to dad. I would highly recommend this museum as a must for all of you reading this that might go to Washington D.C. The museum can be reached on the web at: www.spymuseum.org

Until a latter post,

Splinter for the K9family